LITTLE ROCK - The state's higher education system will ask for more state money this year, but there will be little money to be had, House and Senate leaders said.

House Speaker-elect Bill Stovall, D-Quitman, also said any large increase in funding for higher education was going to be difficult while the state faces court-ordered, multibillion-dollar improvements to public education facilities and escalating Medicaid expenses.

Senate President Pro Tempore-elect Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, agreed. "I think they've got a difficult situation, for sure," he said of college and university administrators.

Students will continue to pay higher and higher tuition until the state increases its support, said Stanley Williams, spokesman for the state Department of Higher Education. "The student's share of the expense is already above 33 percent at four-year schools," he said. "I can remember a time when it was 20 to 22 percent and we were talking about getting it below that."

Dr. Robert C. Brown, president of Arkansas Tech University, expressed gratitude that the governor has made higher education a priority, but he still lamented the continuing discrepancy in state funding for Tech.

"All of the four-year institutions got some consideration in this formula, except for Arkansas Tech," Brown said Saturday.

He said the proposal rewards some instutions for inefficiency, while Tech continues to produce graduates for only $3,881 in state funding for each full-time equivalency in students.

State spending on state-run colleges and universities has remained flat since 2001 as the state continues to address court-ordered reform of public schools. The state Department of Higher Education is asking for a $55.9 million increase in the next fiscal year and a $49.1 million increase in the year after that. The department's budget in the current fiscal year is $568.6 million.

The requested increases barely keep up with inflation and don't keep up with an enrollment growth since 2001, Williams said.

Gov. Mike Huckabee has put his support behind increases for higher education. However, Argue said, that declaration of support doesn't create any more money to spend.

"The governor's budget proposals are not helpful. If I was governor, my budget proposals would probably not be any more helpful," Argue said. There are simply more worthwhile demands than there is money, he said.

"There is a feeling in the Legislature, I think, that there are issues in higher education that go beyond finding more funding," Argue said. "There's issues of governance, of duplication of curriculum between the various campuses, and of administrative expense. There are some who feel those issues ought to be addressed so we can get a better return on our higher education investment before we put more money into higher education. It will have to come from somebody besides the colleges and universities themselves. It's unrealistic to expect a reform package from them. That would be like asking rural public school superintendents to consolidate themselves."

The state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education reported in June that Arkansas ranks 12th in the nation among states in the money it spent per capita on higher education. Funding on a per-student basis is near the regional average.

"I understand the problems there in terms of money," Williams said. "I've also heard about higher education and duplications, but try to get rid of them and see what happens. We knew what the duplications were in 1972 and have never done anything about them yet."

The Legislature made the decision to open colleges and universities across the state so that all regions would have access to higher education, Williams said. Now those institutions have the highest tuition in the South, he said.

"I know that the campuses are there for access, but when you raise tuition, what are you doing to access then?" Williams said. "It's a very, very difficult problem."

Stovall said his priority in higher education spending was to "try to adjust the problems of equity in funding." Some colleges get far more per full-time equivalent of student than others, and that needs to be addressed whether or not there is any big increase of taxpayer funds, he said.